Joe Bastianich has joked that MasterChef is the "underbelly of the Gordon Ramsay beast" because it shows a softer side to the celebrity chef.

The judge was appearing on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon when the host pointed out that Ramsay can be a "jerk" on his other shows but not MasterChef.

Bastianich said: "This is different... This is the underbelly of the Gordon Ramsay beast. The kinder, gentler... This is the Gordon Ramsay who cooks for his kids."

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Fallon then said that Bastianich is a "mean" judge, to which he replied: "I'm not mean! But when bad food happens to good people, it's a problem and I'm there to stop that."

He added: "MasterChef is the search for America's culinary amateur talent, so this is a search for the best home cook in America and it's our job to figure out who that is."

As for whether Bastianich would hire any of the MasterChef contestants, he said: "Not only would I, but we have. We've hired people in our restaurants because they are talented and passionate and bring a lot of who they are."